Chapter 5 #2
“And now it’s all starting to come together,” Apple said, sighing with relief. “False alarm, everyone. We can all stand down. I don’t need Eli as a translator. We can do this without any help. This was all just a huge coincidence.”
“I’ve never chosen to take a walk for fun in my life,” Eli said. “This wasn’t a coincidence.”
“Ok, fine, maybe we needed you to help me figure out what was up with Echo, but we don’t need you anymore.” Apple placated, then turned to shout at the sky, “And for the record, universe, I could have done this on my own, thank you very much. No need for the dramatics.”
“Echo, do you want to come with us?” Eli insisted.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Apple muttered, yet he kept his politician’s smile plastered to his face.
“I can take half of them,” the redhead stated loudly. “Vale can do the other half. Is there any cheesecake left, Echo? I’m Baz, by the way, and I’m starving.”
I tilted the bag and pointed to the opening to show Baz the sandwich.
“Aw, man.” Baz sounded devastated and nothing at all like someone who’d just announced to dozens of people that he could easily defeat them if needed. “Does it have pickles?”
I shrugged and handed him the bag.
“So, what’s your deal?” Baz asked as he opened the sandwich wrapper. He didn’t wait for me to answer, but instead followed up with, “You’ve got cum on your leg, did you know? Aw, dammit, it’s got pickles on it.”
I looked down at my leg and saw that, in fact, it did. But you could only tell if you looked closely. I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. If I’d had a million years to guess, I never would have suspected how my evening was going to go.
Was it really too much to ask for one measly vampire to do his fucking job?
“Vale’s got cum on his coat too,” Baz said around a mouthful of sandwich. “Pickles aren’t that bad if you’re prepared for them.”
“Should we just go?” Eli asked Haruka.
“Gods, yes, please,” Apple said.
Haruka made a motion with one hand, and his soldiers began to blend back into the trees.
“I don’t want to see you again,” Haruka said flatly, glaring at Gareth.
“It’s a small world, Haruka. I can’t promise you our paths will never cross,” Gareth said, not budging an inch even though he was heavily outnumbered.
“Make the effort,” Haruka growled, taking Eli by his shoulders and steering him out of the park.
“I’m glad that’s over,” Baz said. “Whatever that was, I mean. Hey, Echo, you’ve also got blood on your neck. Vale is a great fuck, right? How did you survive? He’s never been willing to bite me, so—”
“Okay, Baz, time for you to go.” Vale yanked Baz off the bench by the collar and force-marched him into the trees, leaving me, Apple, and Gareth to watch as Haruka’s entourage of soldiers slowly faded away.
“That was fun,” Apple said without an ounce of sarcasm.
Gareth snorted in response.
I accidentally glanced at him and immediately regretted it. My stomach churned with fear, and I ripped my gaze away to stare at the ground in an attempt to keep the cheesecake inside me.
“Not fun,” I choked out.
“I can see that,” Apple said, still cheerful, but not unsympathetic. “You don’t need a translator. You need something else entirely, don’t you? You’re a curious critter, Echo. I like you.”
I tried to throw Apple a look that said, I regret all my life choices leading up to this point in time. I would have succeeded if he hadn’t been standing so close to Gareth. You’d think it would get easier to look at Gareth as time went on, but it only got worse.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more terrifying than Gareth in my life, and that’s fucking saying something.
What was he? If he was Vale’s boss, then he couldn’t be a normal human, right? And then there was Apple, who clearly had something going on. Haruka had said something about charm and luck, which would totally explain the rumors about Apple floating around town.
And then there was Eli glowing up a storm in the dead of night. And don’t even get me started on how everyone in the park had been focused entirely on Haruka and how he’d felt about the situation.
I’d stepped from a world of seeing the occasional tiny flying horse-bird and dodging pixie shit to something entirely above my pay grade.
“So, how do I communicate with you, Echo?” Apple asked, tapping his chin. “Or maybe I should ask how I can help you communicate with us?”
“You should ask,” I said.
Ask a lot. I thought, trying to will him to understand me. Say a lot. The more you say, the more I have to work with.
Apple examined me carefully as he mulled over my statement.
He didn’t seem to find what he was looking for, but instead of getting irritated, like so many people often did, his eyes shined with excitement and he said, “You’re a challenge, Echo, and I love that about you. We’re going to be besties from now on.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Besties?”
“The best of besties,” he assured me. “Adam is going to love you.”
I didn’t have a bestie—or a friend, really—and had no idea what to do with one, but if being Apple’s bestie meant I didn’t have to talk to Gareth, I would take the deal and call it a bargain.
“Besties,” I said again in cautious agreement.
“He’s mine now, Gareth. Be nice,” Apple announced.
“If you want a new pet, he can live under the porch stairs for all I care, just find out what he knows so I can go back to bed,” Gareth said with an edge to his voice.
For someone who looked scarier than Satan himself, Gareth sounded a lot more like an exhausted parent than you’d expect.
“Not a pet,” I bravely stated, but still keeping my eyes averted.
“No, he’s not a pet,” Vale announced as he strode out of the forest without Baz. There were no bloodstains, so I assumed Baz survived whatever Vale did to him. “And he’s not yours, Apple. We don’t need new people coming around the house. I’m irritated enough as it is. Please don’t add to it.”
If Vale’s mean little speech earlier hadn’t done it, that definitely put the nail in the coffin of my quiet little hope that Vale the Vampire was going to suck me to death.
Yeah, you heard what I said. Either meaning would have suited me.
And no. I wasn’t currently actively seeking death, but a boy can lie down and let it happen, right?
“Can everyone please stop getting attached to Echo so we can get on with this?” Gareth snapped. I was startled into looking at him once more, and I broke out into a cold sweat.
Attached? The only person I saw getting attached was Apple. Vale obviously couldn’t give two shits about me.
Vale stepped between me and Gareth, once again blocking my view. “I see nothing worth getting attached to.” He sniffed haughtily and brushed something off his coat sleeve. It was probably some of the cum Baz had mentioned.
“Mean,” I pouted. Vale was mean. Like, super duper mean. He reminded me of a stray cat I’d found as a child. At first, it was all hissing and rage until I gave it some tuna. It was still volatile afterward, but when I came to visit it again, it didn’t hiss as loudly or as frequently.
Maybe I should have offered Vale some tuna.
“So, you can say a few things unprompted,” Apple said, leaving Gareth’s side and joining me on the bench. “How much can you say on your own?”
Wow. Apple was nice. Beautiful, too.
When he took my hand, I shivered, but not from fear. Something about Apple glowed and rubbed against my soul, warming me up and making me feel less dead inside. I clasped Apple’s hand with both of mine and squeezed gently. It was somehow strong and delicate at the same time.
“I say a few things. What things do you want me to say?” I asked dreamily.
Vale scowled at both of us before asking, “Where did you find Lyle?”
How the hell was I supposed to work with that? “I found Lyle,” I said sulkily, refusing to look at Mean Vale and keeping my gaze locked on Beautiful Apple.
“Useful, Vale. Very useful,” Apple mocked. “I thought you were supposed to be creative.”
“I’d be more creative if you weren’t sitting there being twice as irritating as you usually are.”
“Am I?” Apple touched his chest with a dainty hand. “How interesting.”
“Fuck off, Apple.”
“I love you too, Vale,” Apple said affectionately and then returned to giving me his full attention. “Darling, did you meet Lyle online or in person? And if you found him online, did he contact you, or did you contact him?”
“He contacted me online.” Finally, someone understood that the old adage of less is more didn’t apply to me.
“Did he email you? Or was it on a website you visited? Did he give you any personal information?”
“He emailed me. No personal information.”
“Echo, love. You need a class on internet safety immediately. You’re lucky you found me.”
“So lucky,” I smiled at him, hoping he’d pump me for more information. I’d be so cooperative with him.
“Can I have your phone for a moment?” Apple asked, holding out his hand. I passed it to him happily, and he held it to my face to unlock it before tossing it over his shoulder without looking.
I heard the soft clap of it landing in someone’s hand, and Gareth said, “Thank you, Apple.”
Whatever Apple needed from my phone was probably important, and I was delighted to be of use to him.
“Thank you, Apple,” I said. I didn’t know why I was thanking him. For existing, maybe. It was so wonderful that Apple existed.
“You are so good for my ego, Echo,” Apple said, patting me on the cheek. “I’ve gotten used to living with a bunch of assholes who are almost entirely immune to my charms.”
Charm? Yes, Apple was so charming.
I took his hand again and asked, “Can I live under your porch?”
“You’re just the sweetest thing, Echo. Maybe you should live under our porch.”
“I will totally live under your porch,” I said breathily.
Every member of their little gang was dressed in expensive clothing, so their house was probably really fancy too.
That meant their porch was probably nice and roomy.
If I asked Apple to install a heater so I didn’t freeze, I doubted it would be any worse than my apartment.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Vale snarled. He yanked Apple off the bench by his collar just like he had with Baz and dragged him out of sight.
For a moment, I was heartbroken at being parted from Apple. He was so wonderful, so perfect, so kind, so…
So…
What the actual fucking fuck just happened?
The soft glow surrounding me faded, and the emptiness of reality slammed back down on me, taking my breath away. I choked from the pain of such a sudden transition.
“Sorry about that, kid. Apple has that effect on people,” Gareth said.
I looked at him before I could think better of it and saw he was poking at my phone. I had time to notice he’d attached something to it before terror swept through me, causing me to slump from the bench, sending me to my knees.
“Effect,” I rasped out. I didn’t know which was worse. The loss of Apple, or Gareth’s effect on my nervous system.
Gareth didn’t say anything else. He just kept poking away at my phone. I closed my eyes and thought about how nice it would have been if Vale had murdered me when he had a chance.
Cool hands lifted me from the ground and placed me on the park bench once more. I flopped bonelessly and fell against a warm, now-familiar body. My eyes opened to fix on Vale. His jaw was clenched tightly, and a vein stood out on his neck.
“I hate Apple, Gareth. I don’t know why you let that little menace stay with us.” Vale growled.
“Menace,” I agreed. Whatever the hell Apple had done to me didn’t mix well with the extreme existential dread I lived with on a daily basis.
“I’m not living under your porch,” I groaned.
“No one is living under our porch,” Vale said. I leaned into him more, and his arm came around me to support me.
“You’re mean,” I pouted.
“We’ve established that, yes.”
I grumbled wordlessly.
“I still have questions, Vale. You shouldn’t have sent Apple away so quickly,” Gareth said, and I could hear him walking toward us. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t see him.
“No Apple,” I said firmly.
“Ask your questions, Gareth. I’m sure we’re all smart enough to figure this out together.” Vale’s voice was pure condescension, but he kept his arm around me.
It felt nice. Not Apple nice. Real, actual nice. The kind you could trust. Maybe he was only doing it to keep me from falling over until they questioned me to their hearts’ content, but it was better than whatever the hell Apple had done.
I could see why so many people liked Apple. If their inner world wasn’t a complete pile of shit like mine was, it was probably nice to get a boost like that, but for me? The fallout after wasn’t worth it.
You know what I said about not actively seeking out death?
That only came after years of therapy, both after the loss of my bio-family and then after losing Evan and Rob.
I still thought about it all the time, and at that moment, I could feel myself spiraling out of control and zooming toward the very, very bad place.
I clutched Vale’s sweater between my fingers and tried to breathe slowly.
To only focus on the moment. On the soft wool under my fingertips.
I would get through the present moment, and if Vale and Gareth didn’t decide to kill me, I would go home and sit very, very still.
And if I was lucky, I would make it to see sunrise.
After that, it was anyone’s guess.